CHAPTER VII 



SOME RARE BIRDS IN THE PRINCIPALITY 



Chacun a S071 gout ; but give us the charms of the 

 Welsh hills and dales— charms which are the more 

 engaging, because here is the last refuge for some of 

 our fast disappearing avifauna. The best time to 

 study these rarities is undoubtedly spring, so let us 

 choose a morning in that month of months, Ma)% 

 and betake ourselves to a valley that we know — one 

 of the most enchanting and wild valleys of all wild 

 Wales. 



A haze denoting heat clouds the atmosphere — cob- 

 webs, a shimmer of gauze, cling to every tree and 

 bush and rock, the river, a winding silver thread, 

 teeming with its hardy little brown-speckled trout, 

 dashes with rippling wave over variegated slabs of 

 rock and smooth glistening pebbles — the haunt of 

 the otter. Here, at all events, no shaggy, iron- 

 sinewed hounds have invaded his sanctuary or tried 

 to dislodge him from his beloved hill stream, and 

 here, doubtless, he revels in the wild scenery just as 

 we do. 



A Dipper pipes cheerily up stream, taking its 



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